True Spirit
by Dufferooni
Summary: OPU No Pairing Two Shot - What if Zoro never came back when they were all meant to meet up at the Archipelago? Is he really gone? Luffy doesn't think so.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: __Hi guys, so I decided to attempt a sort of... two-shot fic for OP again. It's been AGES since I've written in OP-verse. Properly, anyway. Or... completed. ANYWAY. I'm rusty and I'm pretty sure I jump around with my tenses, but I picked and prodded at this fic for HOURS and just can't look at it any more. Enjoy._

**Disclaimer: I do not claim to own One Piece or any of it's characters  
Pairings: General, maybe SanjixLuffyxZoro if you squint REAAAALLLLYYY hard but it's more friendship. (I freakin' LOVE Sanji and Luffy and Zoro friendship and interaction)**

**Warning: **It's not REALLY a death fic, but I guess it is. It's more of a 'What if?' kinda deal.

_**True Spirit**_

Luffy bounced back and forth from member to member of his crew, sizing them up and checking them out, his eyes sparkling brightly every now and again when he saw how amazing they all had become. The only thing missing was-

"Where on Earth is Zoro," Nami muttered, scratching in her journal with a quill and occasionally patting her adoring public – Sanji – on the head and telling him it was lovely to see him too. Beside her, Robin gently turned the page of her book and looked up. Franky was busy talking with Brook and Usopp, Luffy was still buzzing back and forth from nakama to nakama and Chopper was napping by a nice shady tree. After a moment of scanning the horizon and coming up with nothing, Robin returned her gaze to the book.

"Perhaps swordsman-san didn't survive his injuries," she muttered in her usual macabre way. She didn't mean any harm and was only having a joke, but the others often took it seriously. Nami paled slightly and sent a glance towards where Sanji had wandered off to join in the festivities between Usopp and Luffy and let her gaze fall on both the captain and the blonde haired chef. In reality, if Zoro really had died, then those two would be affected the most out of all of them, Luffy especially.

"I think he's just lost," Chopper piped up, pushing the brim of his obnoxiously adorable hat up and peeking at them with a smile and a wide eye. There was a tremor to his voice despite his confidence in his own words but Nami didn't pick at it and instead smiled at the little doctor. At least one of them was being optimistic.

"Hai hai, you're probably right, Chopper," she agreed, tapping her quill against the paper in a leisurely fashion. Luffy's joyful squeals at Usopp's stories – all true now, apparently – were heard over the top of every bit of chatter the straw hats were involved in and they all shared a moment of silent laughter and happiness that their captain was with them again. Without him, without each other, it had been a horribly tormenting two years.

The ship was ready to set sail, well and truly, but with the first mate missing, none were ready to leave. Despite the cranky swordsman's habits of always being in the way when napping, or threatening to kill long-nose or the chef, he was as loved and cared about as the rest of the crew, and as much a part of it as any of them.

Even if the rest of the crew did somehow decide that it wasn't worth waiting for him and he had betrayed them in some shape or form, Luffy wouldn't ever leave without his first mate. He would sit there and wait for a further two years if he had to, no way was Zoro going to be left behind when the two had been together since the beginning.

No, they were all perfectly content to wait and the only person to even remotely whinge about the circumstances was Sanji, and that was only because he was absolutely dying to get back into his kitchen and start a gigantic meal of celebration for them all. It was clear that he had missed them – the ladies especially – very, very much and the fact that he was currently goofing around with Usopp and Luffy was further proof of this. Franky couldn't stop dancing, his new body allowing for a much more impressive 'push' and 'sway' motion to Brook's joyous tune.

Nami wasn't sure what made her shift her gaze towards the ship, maybe a sense of wistfulness, a wish to be out on the seas again but when she did turn, in all honesty she wasn't sure what she saw. Sunny was exactly as it should've been aside from the coating which she was quickly getting used to but standing near the top of the rope ladder that led back onto their home again, was a strange figure. It took her a few minutes to completely recognize who it was but when she did, her heart leapt into her throat.

"P-Perona," Nami squeaked, getting to her feet and pointing towards the ship. Heads turned to follow the line of sight and each of them expressed a noise of confusion or shock – aside from Sanji who immediately began twirling towards the gothic girl and claiming that she had grown into quite a lovely woman – until Luffy called out over the top of them all.

"OIIIII! What're you doing on my ship, who are you," he bellowed, hands cupped around his mouth and hat pushed back on his head. The figure stood silent and still before she opened an umbrella and gently hopped off the ship, floating gracefully to the ground and putting a hand up to ignore Sanji's compliments.

"Horohorohoro, I'm not here to steal your ship, rubber child. I came here as a favor to Dracule Mihawk, who asked me to report to you some… unfortunate news," Perona spoke, flicking her umbrella and drawing it back down. Her frilly, black dress and lolly-pink hair flittered gently with a breeze as the Mugiwaras gathered around her. Usopp was wary, a hand trailing lightly over his pouch and his other hand flexing gently as if ready to act at a moment's notice. He remembered what this girl was capable of and with his newfound slight positivity, he wasn't going to take any chances here.

"Ah? Mihawk? News? What is it," Luffy questioned, hands on his hips and a wide grin on his face as if he didn't remember just exactly what this girl could do. Perona's lips lifted at the corner for a second before the look fell and her head fell forward a little, her grandiose hat shadowing her eyes.

"The swordsman, he landed unexpectedly on the island I had been sent to by Kuma. It just so happened to be Mihawk's hiding place. I found him and tended to his wounds the best I could, Mihawk was hardly interested if Zoro died or lived. He woke every now and again, tried to move, tried to ask for you, Luffy, saying he needed to know what was going on and needed to get back to the fighting. He was rather distressed, I found. I brought him the paper, the one where you sent the message to your friends so they would know what to do, he was delighted at the chance to spend two years training under Mihawk but his injuries were still severe. He took on Mihawk too early, trained too hard. He was… intriguing to me, always brooding about something or working—"

"We don't have time for your whole life story, weird black-y girl, where's Zoro," Luffy demanded, frowning and ignoring the bump over the head he got from Sanji who was complaining quietly that he shouldn't interrupt a lady. Perona just smiled sadly and lifted her head, eyes glittering with a strange emotion the others weren't used to seeing on the spoiled princess' face.

"Zoro died, a year ago. Mihawk ordered me not to come and tell you straight away because it was, at the time, an unnecessary burden to your training. I'm really sorry, Mugi—"

"Hahaha, you're funny, Miss," Luffy chuckled, his belly laugh rumbling out as he slapped his side and cackled at the 'joke'. The others weren't sure what to make of the situation. They couldn't trust an enemy, but she seemed to be telling the truth. Perona was confused by the captain's reaction for a moment before she smiled softly and took a step back, flicking her umbrella out and open to shade her from the rays of the sun.

"I'm not telling a joke, Mugiwara," she said, a firm tone touching her voice. Luffy stared at her before frowning. Nami stepped forward, her face pale and her hands pressed together.

"This isn't funny anymore, where's Zoro? He automatically promised to be here, he said he wouldn't die, so where is he?"

"Luffy-" Nami began but was surprised when her captain held a hand up quickly to quiet her. Sanji almost hissed but Robin laid a hand on his head, calming him instantly. Now wasn't the time to be interrupting the conversation at hand.

"He's gone, Luffy," Perona stated, her own face contorting into a saddened one. "I liked him, he was… fun."

"He's NOT _gone_," Luffy hissed, his eyes narrowing slightly. "This joke has gone too far, Zoro needs to be back here now, go tell him to get back here and stop fooling around." The Goth girl's expression remained hidden for a moment before she turned angry eyes on the captain in front of her, hardly afraid. At first, she'd been a touch timid but now… now she was ready to send him into the ground with a hundred horo ghosts. How dare he question her word?

"He's DEAD, Mugiwara! No amount of yelling at his corpse is going to bring him back!" Perona's harsh statement hung in the air but she didn't back down, eyes narrowed at Luffy and stance strong. Luffy stared at her, his teeth bared for a moment before he turned away and walked in a circle. Before any of them could stop him, he slammed his gaze into Perona, Haki making every bone and muscle in her body freeze in pure terror. Perona's eyes rolled back into her head and her mouth hung open. The pink umbrella dropped to the ground from her slack hand with a soft, muffled thud as her knees buckled.

A moment later, her unconscious and slightly shuddering form fell to the earth and nobody dared to move for fear that Luffy would direct his gaze at them. Another moment of pure and utter silence passed over the group, no one daring to say or do anything until finally Sanji grimaced and moved forward. He lightly brushed past the others and headed towards Perona's still shaking form, her eyes wide and her mouth open in terror. Chopper trotted after him, pulling his bag from his shoulder and kneeling beside the body.

"It's not her fault, Luffy," Sanji muttered, crouching beside the woman and shifting her to rest on her back and in a more comfortable position. Chopper instantly began performing tests and checking everything he could to make sure she was otherwise unharmed. There was no answer and when the blonde turned around to see what was happening, their captain was gone. Still nobody moved, all of them forming a small group of shocked and dismayed members of a ragtag group of pirates who had suddenly become some of the world's most wanted – without their first mate.

Reality seemed like a harsh slap in the face right now and the game they had been playing around in like children since East Blue was becoming far too real.

Sanji and Franky tended to Perona until she woke and fled the scene, but not before telling them where Zoro was buried and how to get there if they wanted to go. Nami wrote the location down, marking it out and taking down all the notes Perona gave her before watching as the gothic princess legged it away from the ship as fast as she could, a protective horo-ghost floating after her. No one knew where Luffy had headed off to, his form disappearing before any of them could even think twice.

Franky, Usopp, Chopper and Brook all called 'not it' for finding the captain – which Nami beat them over the head about because they were being horribly immature – and Robin had nothing to say, her former 'prediction' coming true having set her a little on edge. She'd never meant any harm and now all of a sudden, exactly what she had said had come to pass. It had only been a harmless joke and a stating of the most negative outcome so when Zoro re-appeared, it would be a bigger relief. Well that plan had backfired horribly and Robin was feeling the effects.

Nami retreated instead to the galley, hoping to seek some solace in perhaps a Sanji who would attempt to cheer her up because he hated seeing her sad; it was a failed effort, the blonde was quieter than she'd ever seen him. She seated herself at the table and pulled the paper towards her, eyes scanning the front page before she turned it carefully, the crinkling noise almost deafening in the strange silence. Usually there was always some kind of noise in the kitchen, be it Sanji humming as he cooked, or Luffy yelling that he was hungry.

The blonde was standing in the freezer, his eyes scanning the recently restocked shelves and an unlit cigarette caught between his lips. After a while he finally pulled down a large hunk of meat and moved out of the freezer with it held in his arms like a child. He spared her a quick glance but didn't say anything, eyes set firmly on the task of putting the half-frozen meat into a tray and getting it defrosted and ready for cooking.

"Sanji-kun," Nami finally spoke after what felt like hours and hours of nothing but an uncomfortably cold silence. The blonde picked up a knife at that moment and began chopping vegetables at breakneck speed, his hand flashing so fast it was merely a blur.

"Hai, Nami-swan," Sanji responded but it lacked the usual vivacity that made it so distinctly _him_ that the ginger haired navigator almost flinched. Instead she calmly turned another page of the paper and stared firmly at the words in front of her without reading them.

"… I think you should be the one to go and find Luffy," she said softly, her words almost not heard from behind the paper but Sanji felt them like a cold rush of air to his face. The 'snick-snick-snick' of his blade cut off instantly and he craned his neck to look back at her.

"Haa? But Nami-san, I'm not- I don't- I really think that's a bad idea," he stuttered, unsure how to tell his precious Nami 'no' without sounding horribly harsh about it. Nami laid the paper flat on the table in front of her and raised her eyes to meet his, something trembling in her lips but a look of fiercely determined calm keeping her features solid and fearless. She took a moment to smooth the pages with her long fingers before instead clasping them together in front of her to stop them from shaking.

"I think it's a really good idea, actually. You were the one who found Zoro at Thriller Bark, you were the one who fought so hard to stop him being sent away… he was your best friend, as much as you deny it, you loved him as much as you love the rest of us. As much as we love you," Nami spoke, oddly sentimental about all this. Sanji didn't even light up or flinch at the confession of supposed 'love' for the chef and instead took it like an adult, bowing his head slightly and smiling to himself in modesty.

"I hate to sound weak or stupid, Nami-san, but I miss the stupid meat-head," he said, his voice barely above a whisper and his eyes set firmly on the counter-top. "I'll go find Luffy for you, Nami-san, I'll bring him back here."

"Thank you, Sanji-kun."

_A/N:_ _That's it for this chapter. Next chapter will be up soon. It's completed, I just need to pick at it a bit more. _


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: __Second part done! I'm not redoing disclaimers or anything. Also, reviews would be very much appreciated. Seriously. Hint hint here. _

_**True Spirit**_

It took until well after nightfall for Sanji to even locate their wayward captain and when he did, he should've expected it. Luffy was sitting at the highest point of the island, his eyes cast towards the distance and the cold, night air blowing through his hair. Boshi was set on the ground beside him, his hand covering it so it didn't float away and his legs dangling off the edge of the building. He was humming a random song, his eyes never leaving the distant sea line and his hand occasionally stroking over the rough straw of his hat.

Sanji watched him for a moment before wandering over with his hands in his pockets and taking a seat beside the younger man, letting his long legs dangle over the edge as he pulled out a cig and lit it. The first puff wafted across Luffy's vision and nose in an accidental attempt at waking the other up but there was no response and the blonde barely contained the annoyed twist of his lips.

"Na, Luffy, we're having a big feast and everything soon, you should get back to the ship, eh," he said, blowing out another stream of smoke and watching it spiral towards the night sky. It took a long time for Sanji to get a response and he was about to repeat the question when the captain spoke.

"Ah, we've gotta wait for Zoro, Sanji. I'm gonna wait for Zoro, ne?" Luffy's voice was quiet which was an abnormality in and of itself and Sanji couldn't quite figure out what to say next. The response had stumped him; stunned him, and he just couldn't bring himself to say what needed to be said. It was one thing for a stranger to tell them Zoro was dead but for a crew member to confirm that fact, now _that_ was a whole different kettle of fish. One Sanji really didn't want to touch or use but he had to or they were going to lose their captain.

Luffy couldn't just be left alone with this, not this, he needed to be talked to, coaxed into believing it and accepting it and eventually, moving on. That was a lot easier said than done. This wasn't like a talk to a slightly confused and mildly upset green headed moron – who had quite often just been in the wrong place, at the wrong time - who he just picked a fight with and the problem was fixed.

No.

Fighting with Luffy wasn't going to solve this… or at least, not verbally anyway. Luffy didn't even have the brain capacity for comebacks that the stupid Marimo did… _had_. Finally Sanji mustered up the courage – after a further two cigarettes – to say what needed to be said and get this little project underway. He wasn't sure what would happen, whether he would end up like Perona or worse but he was going to try. It was his duty now with Zoro gone.

"Luffy… Perona wouldn't travel all that way to lie to us, y'know," he began carefully. When Luffy didn't respond, Sanji tapped his cigarette and watched the ash swirl away before venturing on.

"Ma… Marimo wouldn't want this, Luffy… He'd tell you to get over it and get back to the ship, be the captain again, wouldn't he?" It was funny how his voice caught on the old nickname, he must've inhaled that smoke at the wrong time.

"Well," Luffy snorted, a strange and grim smirk spreading over his darkened features. "Zoro also hasn't died before, so he wouldn't know what to say, would he?" Sanji paused and blinked, his eyebrows raised and mouth drawn down in a frown of thought. The logic behind it was true but the underlying trace of sarcastic bite was what really caught the chef off guard.

How was he supposed to respond to that? Goddamn it, why had that meat-head gone off to die? Damn asshole selfish prick. Sanji's lips twitched and he ignored the slight prickling and burning in the back of his throat – it was because of the cigarette, yes, all because of the cigarettes he'd been smoking since he was fourteen.

"I guess not," Sanji muttered, flicking the butt of his cig away and pulling out a new one. "So you… do believe her, then?"

"… She wasn't lying. I can tell when people are lying about that stuff, I'm not that stupid, Sanji. Not anymore, anyway," Luffy mumbled, dropping his head and pushing his hands together in his lap. "I learnt lots from Rayleigh and Jinbei and the girls while I was gone for the two years." Sanji listened silently, ignoring the flash of jealousy – why couldn't _he_ have learned lots from the _girls_ instead of being stuck on _THAT_ hell? – at the fact Luffy had had it pretty good and he'd been running his guts out every day.

No, that wasn't true at all. Luffy had it harder than any of them had. The war, Ace's death, Whitebeard, everything, Sanji was surprised the kid had come back to them in the shape he had but was infinitely proud of the captain for facing such times and still being loyal to his crew. He didn't mention what Luffy had done to Perona but later he would berate the captain for it, shooting the messenger was _not_ the way to be handling things, especially if that messenger was female and very, very cute.

"So… but you said you were waiting for Zoro," Sanji ventured, watching as the moon began to rise over the ocean. It was in its third waxing quarter and soon the full moon would be hanging above them again. Hopefully they would have set sail by then so they could have a party out in the middle of the ocean, underneath it.

"I am waiting for him," Luffy said, his voice lacing with a chuckle. "He'd still be trying to find his way back again, Sanji. Dead or alive, he'd work his way back to us _somehow_." There was no humor in the captain's voice, his face serious and his words confusing Sanji's poor mind into a constant back and forth motion of 'Zoro's dead, he's not dead, what the hell's going on?'. Unless… was Luffy talking about ghosts? Honestly, did the kid believe in those things? After all their adventures, Sanji supposed it wasn't far-fetched at all but the pure idea of the Marimo haunting them and ghosting about on the ship gave him the heebie-jeebies.

"You're not… thinking Marimo will come back as a ghost, are you… kid?"

"Haaaa? Ghosts are real," Luffy freaked, turning to stare at Sanji with a look of such innocent incredulity that the blonde almost burst into outright laughter. Oh man he was so confused.

"So you're thinking a zombie, then?"

"HAA! ZOMBIES!" This time Sanji really did burst into laughter, slapping his leg and shaking his head at the sheer stupidity of the situation. They'd dealt with zombies at Thriller Bark, surely the kid hadn't forgotten all that so soon? Then again, this was Luffy he was talking to. Despite not seeing the funny side of the situation, the captain still grinned as he wondered what his chef was laughing his respective ass off about. Sanji calmed down soon enough, raised a hand to wipe the tears away from his eyes and cleared his throat a little. The two sat in silence then, Luffy staring out to sea and Sanji with his head slightly bowed and his eyes on the slowly disappearing crowds in the city below them.

"… So what did you mean by Zoro finding his way back to us if not ghosts or zombies?" The question hung in the air and for a moment, Sanji thought perhaps he had overstepped his boundaries as Luffy's head bowed. He lifted Boshi back to his head to serve as a makeshift mask to hide his eyes.

"… I'll hear him. Feel him. After… Ace died, I lost control but then I… I felt you guys, heard you. I knew what I had to do, where I had to go and how I should go about it. Zoro'll be the same. I'll hear him and feel him, somehow, so I'm just gonna wait here so he doesn't get lost and miss the island or us before he goes on his way to wherever he's going," Luffy explained, smiling serenely at the buildings below them but never raising his head even a fraction of an inch. Sanji watched him, almost raised a hand to put it on his captain's shoulder but resisted the temptation and instead moved it to rub at the back of his own neck in an awkward manner.

"I… I don't think this is the same, kiddo," the blonde muttered, his voice unsure of what he was saying but disbelieving of Luffy's theory all the same. Luffy hearing them and feeling them was all just a memory, a reminder that he had something to live and love for; fight for. Zoro on the other hand was just gone and there were no memories to tell Luffy anything different. A slight twitch pulled at the chef's lips and he rubbed a hand over them, brushing it away as quickly as it had appeared; now wasn't the time to be going soft and sentimental over the useless Marimo-headed son-of-a-bitch that had landed them in this mess.

"It's the same, Sanji," Luffy said, turning his wide eyes to stare directly into the blonde's. For the first time since he was a kid – when he'd done something naughty and the old bastard had stared him down – Sanji felt like he was being x-rayed and he almost shifted uncomfortably but resisted that temptation as well. This was such a different Luffy to the one they'd last seen. He was still his old self, boisterous and easily excited, but he was almost quieter in a way, more confident and a lot scarier. There was no doubt in Sanji's mind that any member of the crew or any innocent would never come to harm while Luffy was around but there was still an air of serious commanding authority there that they'd only seen flashes of before.

"How," he asked, not taking his eyes away from the dark ones staring into his own. Luffy sighed and dropped his head, turning his gaze back to the ocean again.

"You think this is stupid, you're stupid, go away stupid," the captain snarled intelligently, turning straight into his sulky self. Well, apparently his vocabulary hadn't improved during his two years of training.

"Oi oi, I don't think it's stupid, brat, I just wanna understand why you're sitting here, waiting for something that's not ever going to come back," Sanji grunted, lighting another cigarette but frowning when Luffy snapped out a hand and threw it out over the city, the lit end disappearing like a firefly into the darkness.

"OI," Sanji growled, snapping his gaze back to his captain but subsiding almost instantly when he saw Luffy's shoulders were just barely shuddering in the darkness. His arms were clamped around himself, his head was bowed and his legs were drawn up and into a crossed position.

"Stupid, it's not stupid, I'm waiting for Zoro to come back, I could always feel where he was when we were apart, he was my first mate, and now he's g-gone and you're calling this stupid." Sanji stared at the silently sobbing captain, hand still in mid-air before he clenched it and growled at his own lack of tact.

"I didn't say it was _stupid_ I just want to understand it!"

"You can't understand it because you're not _me_!" Luffy's yell echoed around them and Sanji felt a hard pressure touch his chest, knocking him backwards slightly and making his head reel for a second; freakin' Haki. Silence lingered in the air, awkward and oppressing until Sanji felt his throat close up a little and he had to clear it; the noise sounded foreign and frightening in his ears.

Luffy didn't move though and he was slowly being swallowed up by the growing darkness around them, the time now getting late enough that lights were beginning to flicker off in the houses near to them. No, his original plan of fighting with Luffy, either verbally or physically wasn't going to play out or accomplish anything today aside from getting his ass kicked into a whole new world of hurt, perhaps then he wouldn't feel the pain throbbing in his chest whenever he thought about the stupid prick of a Marimo who had saved all their lives at Thriller Bark.

"We should get back to the ship, Luffy, you can sit on Sunny's head and Zoro will still be able to find you there," Sanji said, getting slowly to his feet and pushing his hands into his pockets. Luffy didn't move for a while and then eventually began getting to his feet when he decied that maybe the chef is right and Sunny would be a more comfortable place to be seated.

The trip back to the ship was silent and awkward and Sanji felt the need to attempt to make conversation but it was ignored and eventually he fell silent, letting things be and instead taking to puffing on at least ten cigs before climbing up the ladder to the grassy texture of their home's deck. Nobody said a word when Luffy boarded, nobody even looked at him, they were all too caught up in either talking to each other or leaning against something, their eyes closed in a light doze. It was a long time before anyone moved and it was Chopper who eventually decided to get his little fluffy backside up to the front deck.

Sanji had to give him credit for being the most courageous of them right then. Nami followed not long after, her ginger hair gently bouncing and that caught the blonde chef's attention instantly and made him trail after her, goofy smile plastered across his face. They found Chopper sitting with his back against the figurehead, Luffy's figure just visible at the top of it. It was obvious the captain was suffering deeply despite his brief attempt at normality up on top of the building when he and Sanji had been conversing. Nami settled herself against the figurehead as well and tugged their doctor into her lap, petting his ears quietly and letting her head rest back against the hard wood of the ship.

Sanji decided he'll sit beside her and doesn't object when suddenly the smell of mikans and spice from her hair floated up to his nose, her head on his shoulder. She had never been one to show her needy side but that night was different; that night was terrible. Soon the others followed, led by Usopp who sat on the other side of Nami and wrapped an arm loosely around her waist. Robin sat beside Sanji and leant her back against his arm, hands sprouting from behind the other three to embrace their shoulders gently from behind. Franky and Brook kind of stood to the side, leaning against the wood and not daring to sing, or cry, or say anything because they only knew Zoro briefly. Enough for it to hurt, but not enough for it to be considered polite of them to do anything about it.

The sea sloshed gently against the ship, rocking it like a cradle and Brook finally started to hum, his melodious voice soft at first but rising when nobody objected to his performance. Luffy stayed where he was, didn't turn, didn't look, didn't speak but the crew felt their captain's pain mingling with their own. He knew they were there without having to even look back at them.

They lost one of their own, a family member, a friend, someone important and the gap was felt so strongly right then and there that Franky burst into tears and blubbered that he'd never been part of such a tight knit group before and he hoped that Zoro would be happy and safe wherever he is now.

The dim hope that it was all a cruel prank played by Perona, faded quickly and no one looked at the rope ladder anymore whenever they heard a noise; it was a pointless effort to keep believing. Brook's voice echoed almost hauntingly over the ship and the island, his simple humming saying more than words ever possibly could and when he finished, a strong breeze gusted over them all, almost cutting at them and making the group pull tightly together. They all fell asleep like that, hugging and holding to each other and not ever wanting to let go.

The pain of being away for two years coupled with the loss of a loved one makes their bond so strong in that moment that even though Sanji's surrounded by women, he doesn't care or move, he just holds them and hopes that in the morning, things will look better. They all missed each other a lot.

Sanji never really did understand just what on earth Luffy was talking about on the top of that hill, but when he opens his eyes because of an incessant poking at the top of his head, he quite suddenly realizes. His captain is standing near to the group of huddled straw hats, a broad smile on his face and his hand raised mid-poke. Behind him, there's a dim figure wandering about on the grass as if it's almost lost and confused but its shape and colours are unmistakable.

"I told you he'd find his way back here," Luffy whispers, moving to the stairs and heading down towards the figure. At first, Zoro doesn't seem to realize anyone's there but when he does, it's then that he doesn't seem to realize that he's no longer with them. Sanji wants to move, wants to get up and look but he doesn't want to disturb the others and his pure shock at the situation makes his brain too sluggish to think that if he woke the others _up_ then they could all see as well.

Luffy's busy chatting away to the ghostly figure, waving his arms animatedly and laughing but it's all so quiet that he can't catch the words being spoken. After a while it's obvious the conversation becomes more serious, Luffy crosses his arms and almost hugs himself but stands strong, his eyes narrowing at the figure before he eventually points his finger out across the sea and doesn't move from that position. Zoro stays still and then slowly turns his gaze up to the group of mixed and muddled straw hats, the briefest of smiles crossing his face before he raises his hand and with a distinctly in-Sanji's-direction smug smirk, he flips the chef off.

Sanji feels the usual sudden rage flood the inside of his ribs, white hot and ready to kick Marimo ass but he almost instantly softens and then chuckles, watching as the rude motion turns into one last jaunty wave. Zoro's gaze turns back to Luffy and he lays a hand on the younger man's shoulder, holds it for a while before without any warning, he's just… gone. There's no explaining how he left, it's just like he was never ever there and Sanji's eyes are having trouble adjusting to the sudden lack of smoky substance in front of them.

He feels sadness well up in his guts, an infinitely deep wound gushing clean open with a new cut and he curls his legs up and hugs the girls tighter, feeling his lips tremble. Luffy walks up to them and his usually happy and frantic skipping is now a quiet and purposeful walk.

"Zoro's fine, he's on his way now, he's happy everyone made it back to the ship ok but he said he's sorry he can't be with us. I said he's always with us coz he's part of the crew," Luffy explains, whispering and lowering a hand to rest on Nami's head as she stirs softly. Sanji doesn't question it, just continues biting back those frantic whimpers trying to escape his lips. He feels like a damn child and it's bothering the hell out of him but he can't hold back the tide any longer and before he even realizes what's happened, he's balling and gasping for air and sobbing into Nami's shoulder.

Luffy just laughs quietly, not unkindly because he knows this is what his crew needs right now and he sits down in front of them, watching as each one wakes and stares and then bursts into tears as well when the oppressing feeling of awkward not-niceness from last night is gone and the true gap is felt. The captain stretches his arms wide and circles them all, pulling them into one gigantically messed up hug, his own face smiling and bright because he knows Zoro's ok and because Zoro kept his promise to come back to him again one last time.

It wasn't a ghost and he couldn't describe the swordsman as one even if he'd believed it himself, it was spirit. True, willful, never-ending, never-giving-up spirit that resided deep down in Zoro's guts until his dying day. Nothing had changed that. Luffy just holds them all tight and strong until they've cried themselves out and begin pulling away.

"Minna! Let's get going, eh? It's time for us to find new adventures," Luffy beams, watching their stunned expressions turn into ones of dawning realization. It's over. The grieving period has ended and now's the time for recovery.

"Hai," everybody shouts, all stuffed up and puffy eyed but no less ready to continue on their journey.

**End**

_A/N:__ So my tenses changed, I couldn't and didn't want to fix it so deal with it. DO NOT FEAR, MY LOVELIES! I have an alternate ending in the works if you think this is too sad so you can read that, and be merry. Not... the ship, though, coz that would be WEIRD. Heh. _


End file.
